Browse OrcaRouter's model catalog and run chat completions from inside any Model Context Protocol client — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, or anything else that speaks the protocol.
Catalog browsing works without an API key — compare pricing and capabilities before signing up.
What you can do
- 🗺️ Discover providers and models without an API key
- 💬 Run chat completions through any served model
- 🧠 Auto-route requests through your workspace's
orcarouter/autorouter (cost / quality / balanced / LinUCB / gated-adaptive strategies) - 🔁 Configure fallback chains (primary + up to 4 fallbacks) for resilience
- 📊 Filter models server-side by provider, capability, or minimum context window
- 🎯 Inspect detailed model cards: pricing, context, latency, supported endpoints
- 🔌 Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, and any MCP client
Examples
Try saying things like:
- "List all providers on OrcaRouter"
- "Show me all Anthropic models with their pricing"
- "Get details about
minimax/minimax-m2.7" - "Chat with
orcarouter/autoand explain quantum computing"
Quick Start
Claude Code (CLI one-liner)
claude mcp add orcarouter -s user \
-e ORCAROUTER_API_KEY=sk-orca-your-key \
-- npx -y @orcarouter/mcp
Other clients (config-file path)
-
Copy the example config for your MCP client into the client's config file:
Client Example Action Claude Desktop claude-desktop.json Replace Claude Code claude-code.json Merge Cursor cursor.json Replace Windsurf windsurf.json Replace See
examples/README.mdfor the config-file paths and notes on Zed and other clients. -
Replace
sk-or-...in the copied file with your OrcaRouter API key. -
Restart your MCP client.
The root .mcp.json is the same config in the Open Plugins standard location, so registry/discovery tools that scan for it (e.g. cursor.directory) can pick this server up automatically.
Requires Node.js 18 or later. The ORCAROUTER_API_KEY env var is only
required for orcarouter_chat; catalog tools work without it.
Tools
orcarouter_chat— run a chat completion (with optional fallback chain)orcarouter_models_list— browse the catalog (pricing, context, capabilities)orcarouter_model_card— detailed info for one modelorcarouter_providers_list— list providers with model counts
Full input schemas are exposed at runtime via the MCP tools/list method — your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) reads them automatically.
Configuration
| Name | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
ORCAROUTER_API_KEY | optional | OrcaRouter API key. Required only for orcarouter_chat. |
ORCAROUTER_BASE_URL | optional | API base URL. Defaults to https://api.orcarouter.ai. |
ORCAROUTER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT | optional | Per-request HTTP timeout in seconds. Defaults to 300. |
Security
API keys are read from environment variables, never logged, and only sent to the OrcaRouter API. See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability disclosure policy.
Development
# bun (preferred)
bun install
bun run test
bun run typecheck
bun run build
# or with npm
npm install
npm test
npm run typecheck
npm run build
The build produces an ESM bundle at dist/index.js with a
#!/usr/bin/env node shebang, runnable as the orcarouter-mcp binary.
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md. For newcomer-friendly tasks, browse the good first issue label.